Contents

Most significant solar cooking projects

ADES employs over 30 local trainers and carpenters in three communities, including carpenters hand-crafting wooden solar box cookers in Tulear (photo: ADES)

Parabolic cookers and solar box cookers can work in a complementary fashion to meet a variety of cooking needs (photo: ADES)

April 2010: Long term investment in Madagascar has created a thriving solar cooking enterprise- Since 2001, the Association pour le Développement de l’Energie Solaire (ADES) has been making and selling solar cookers in the southwestern part of Madagascar, providing much-needed cooking alternatives as well as employment for over 30 local carpenters and trainers. In 2003, ADES built its first permanent solar cooker construction workshop in Tulear. A second construction workshop was established in Ejeda in 2006, followed in 2008 by a workshop in Morondava. Each of these regional centers also has sales and demonstration offices. Future plans include development of a fourth regional center in Anosy or Antandroy, and the creation of two or three local branches within each region to reduce transportation distances and increase outreach capacity. According to ADES, southwestern Madagascar experiences about 330 sunny days per year and is a nearly ideal region for solar cooking. However, per capita income in Madagascar is only about $400 per year, making it difficult for families to afford solar cookers and spend their meager income on a technology they are not familiar with. Rising firewood and charcoal costs over the past few years are making solar cookers comparatively more affordable, but still out of reach for many. Subsidies have mostly come from donors in Switzerland and a handful of awards. The Madagascar government has provided some additional support, partnering with ADES to promote renewable energy in Tulear. Hand-crafted wooden solar box cookers, produced locally for upwards of $200 each, are sold at a subsidized price of just over $20. These cookers reach temperatures of up to 150°C, and are commonly used to cook rice, various root vegetables, meat, fish, bread, and cakes. Metal parabolic solar cookers are assembled locally for about $160 each, from aluminum and steel parts made by another local organization at an already subsidized price. The parabolic cookers are then sold at a subsidized price of about $50. These cookers reach even higher temperatures, but require stirring of food and more frequent adjustments to track the sun. They are particularly useful for frying, and can work in a complementary fashion with solar box cookers. Both cookers come with 7-year warranties. By the end of 2009, ADES had sold 4,640 solar cookers. It hopes to ramp up its outreach and sales capacity with funding from carbon credit offsets.

Events

News and Recent Developments

November 2012:Zahana reports that solar box cookers have been very well accepted in the schools. The students like it a lot and have been experimenting, and cooking is many things as possible. In the latest text message from the village, we received a little synopsis of the cooking efforts by the students. The students have been encouraged to keep notes. They recorded the time required to cook local foods: Rice, 2h30; Zebu, 2h30; Fish, 2h; Cassava, 2h30; Dried beans, 3h; Boiling water for coffee, 1h; Madeleine (small cake), 1h; Cassava cake, 2h. Note: they let the internal temperature go up to 100 degree C (216˚F) before the pot gets put in the solar cooker. Introducing solar cookers in the schools was a long-term project. The solar cookers have generated a lot of interest, because a solar cooker does not require firewood to make food for the children and, which seems to be even more important, there is no smoke in the cooking process, as with traditional firewood stoves. Zahana will tie together the solar cooker project and the tree-planting project intertwined in a tangible way. In December 2012, it will be a year we launched the official tree-planting project. Working with the community leaders, we will identify the person, who has planted the most trees that took root successfully. Planting trees alone, is no guarantee that they will grow, if it is not tended to and watered by the person planting it. We had told from the community from the beginning, that we will give awards in the first, second and third year, to the person who has planted the most trees that are still growing. This year the price will be a solar cooker.

November 2012:Niconet Tsukuba has been introducing solar cookers to local citizens in Japan to increase people’s awareness of environmental and global issues, as well as to make small changes from their fossil-fuel-centered lifestyles to eco-friendly ones. Our programs are usually performed in an informal and relaxed manner, by our motto “Niconet’s 3E = Enjoy, Environment, and Eating.” Solar cooking is, in fact, effective for promoting communication with others. In 2011 -2012, we worked with the faculty of a local university to conduct an analysis on the efficiency of the Sun Peace solar cooker which was developed by our member Yuko Tomioka, by using thermo-graphic devices. We plan to include the results in our Solar cooking recipe booklet, which will be available on the web this year. In recent years, we also have focused on hand-made “retained heat cookers”. We introduced that newspaper as an effective material for insulating. While we are mainly active in the local area in Japan, some members are also active in other countries. Our member Fumi Sakurai stayed in Madagascar for two years, where serious deforestation is evident. She introduced villagers to the solar cooker Sun Peace. This solar cooker is easy to make because it does not require measurement. She suggested to some key persons in villages to use aluminum sheets of used snack packages for reflective material. It was found to work successfully in the sun-rich climate. Some villagers who learned how to make/use solar cookers became “teachers” and started to share the skills with others. In Japan, introducing such information is also useful for educational purposes.

November 2012: ADES from 2001 to 2012 - ADES started its solar cooking program in Madagascar in 2001 with a small carpentry shop under a party tent, two motivated carpenters and an instructress. Today we operate six centres with manufacturing facilities, a new sales point in Antananarivo, the capital and a coordination centre in Tuléar. ADES actually employs 85 persons and additionally created about 50 jobs in external enterprises. On average a family of 20 people is living off the salary of one employee. ADES is a socially sustainable employer. All the children of our employees go to school at our expense and the families are covered by health insurance. For each solar cooker sold we have two trees planted in a reforestation project in Madagascar. Read ADES from 2001 to 2012 to find out more and see photographs of our facilities, products, and activities.

The ADES team introduces a new solar box cooker with photovoltaic panels to the public in Madagascar.

June 2011 The team of the Association pour le Développement de l'Energie Solaire (ADES) in Madagascar gathered last Saturday in Baar to unpack a novel solar cooker at the anniversary celebration of ADES. The solar box cooker comes with built-in photo cells. "This will make a sensation," says Regula Ochsner, founder of ADES. Especially valuable, is that the know-how transfer has gone the other way around for once: Madagascar supplies to Europe. Regula was enthusiastic but also a bit scared before the expected rush to the newest generation of solar cookers: "Can we handle the logistics as well?" This is the first time the latest prototype solar cooker has been presented to the general public, and it has happened in Madagascar. The work of ADES and its founder, Regula Ochsner from Ottenbach have received numerous awards, including the Swiss Solar Prize (2007), the Doron Prize (2008) or the price of the Brandenberger Foundation. The 10-year anniversary provides an opportunity to look back. Renewable energies point to the future. The event is even more poignant this year, in light of the tragedy in Fukushima. The non-profit organization has been committed to ADES in Madagascar for the past ten years to preserve the unique flora and fauna and promote sustainable cooking methods. In 2001, under the scorching sun in Madagascar, and under a party tent, the first solar cooker assembled. Today ADES employs around a staff of sixty. Countries with the use of solar and energy-saving stoves have already saved around 30,000 hectares of dry forest from logging. ADES first introduced solar cookers in order to reduce the deforestation of the dry forests, but now, in conjunction with solar cookers use, energy-efficient stoves have helped reduce wood consumption by up to 65%. See photos of the celebration at: ADES 10-year anniversary celebration, 25th June 2011

December 2010: Carbon offset foundation partners with solar cooking project in Madagascar. The Swiss non-profit foundation, MyClimate, is a leader when it comes to voluntary carbon offsetting measures. They have recently partnered with Association pour le Développement de l’Energie Solaire (ADES), another Swiss non-profit, that manufactures and distributes solar cookers in Madagascar. The CO2 offsetting mechanism offered by MyClimate will enable the expansion of the initial ADES project, and growth into other provinces of Madagascar. Their projection over the next seven years, is to distribute up to 44,000 solar cookers and 8,600 energy-efficient supplementary cookers to realize a reduction of up to 190,000 tons of CO2.

August 2010:John Root, an energy services advisor, conducted a workshop in Madagascar in a well-documented slide series of the workshop showing each phase of the cooker construction. Solar cooker workshop

ADES employs over 30 local trainers and carpenters in three communities, including carpenters hand-crafting wooden solar box cookers in Tulear (photo: ADES)

Parabolic cookers and solar box cookers can work in a complementary fashion to meet a variety of cooking needs (photo: ADES)

April 2010: Since 2001, the Association pour le Développement de l’Energie Solaire (ADES) has been making and selling solar cookers in the southwestern part of Madagascar, providing much-needed cooking alternatives as well as employment for over 30 local carpenters and trainers. In 2003, ADES built its first permanent solar cooker construction workshop in Tulear. A second construction workshop was established in Ejeda in 2006, followed in 2008 by a workshop in Morondava. Each of these regional centers also has sales and demonstration offices. Future plans include development of a fourth regional center in Anosy or Antandroy, and the creation of two or three local branches within each region to reduce transportation distances and increase outreach capacity. According to ADES, southwestern Madagascar experiences about 330 sunny days per year and is a nearly ideal region for solar cooking. However, per capita income in Madagascar is only about $400 per year, making it difficult for families to afford solar cookers and spend their meager income on a technology they are not familiar with. Rising firewood and charcoal costs over the past few years are making solar cookers comparatively more affordable, but still out of reach for many. Subsidies have mostly come from donors in Switzerland and a handful of awards. The Madagascar government has provided some additional support, partnering with ADES to promote renewable energy in Tulear. Hand-crafted wooden solar box cookers, produced locally for upwards of $200 each, are sold at a subsidized price of just over $20. These cookers reach temperatures of up to 150°C, and are commonly used to cook rice, various root vegetables, meat, fish, bread, and cakes. Metal parabolic solar cookers are assembled locally for about $160 each, from aluminum and steel parts made by another local organization at an already subsidized price. The parabolic cookers are then sold at a subsidized price of about $50. These cookers reach even higher temperatures, but require stirring of food and more frequent adjustments to track the sun. They are particularly useful for frying, and can work in a complementary fashion with solar box cookers. Both cookers come with 7-year warranties. By the end of 2009, ADES had sold 4,640 solar cookers. It hopes to ramp up its outreach and sales capacity with funding from carbon credit offsets.

July 2007: This past March in Paris, France, Regula Ochsner received the Yves Rocher Foundation’s international "Women of the Earth" award for her work promoting solar cookers in Madagascar. The award honors women who lead actions benefiting nature and humanity. The award ceremony was attended by Madame Nelly Olin, French Minister for the Environment. In 2001 Ochsner founded the Association pour le Développement de l'Energie Solaire Suisse – Madagascar (ADES) to help combat rampant deforestation. Ochsner lived in Madagascar in the early 1970s and was shocked, when she visited in the late 1990s, at the amount of deforestation that had occurred in a period of just 25 years. (Madagascan families use about 100 kilograms of charcoal on a monthly basis, amounting to one-sixth of an average monthly salary.) Ochsner researched cooking alternatives that would reduce firewood and charcoal use, and discovered solar cookers. Madagascar, especially in the south of the country, has close to ideal conditions for the use of solar energy. Ochsner initiated production of solar box cookers by local carpenters in 2001, followed by distribution and sales. In 2003 ADES built a more permanent carpentry workshop in Tulear and another in Ejeda in 2006. ADES currently provides employment to 13 carpenters and trainers. The teaching of the population to use solar cookers is an important part of ADES’ work. Regular demonstrations on how to use the solar cooker take place. The interest level of the population is very high. Over 1500 solar cookers have been sold thus far. A survey of the usage of the solar cookers conducted by two German students in 2004 showed that 75% of the solar cookers were used regularly. Ochsner plans to invest the prize money of 10000 euro in a further solar cooker pilot project in the south of Madagascar. Future plans include development of regional centers in Morondava and Fort Dauphin.

The History of Solar Cooking in Madagascar

Madagascar, with its unique biological diversity, has attracted the attention of
environmentalists from around the world to its rescue. It is somewhat surprising then to
learn that little has been done to curtail the use of fuelwood as the major cooking energy
for the population. Around one-fifth of the island's land has forest cover, which is
diminishing at nearly 1% annually (FAO, 2003). A representative of the country,
speaking at the Varese meeting in 1999, spoke of solar experimentation in the 1970s,
revived in the 90s as deforestation worsened, but with little progress in mass
implementation. The initial introduction was principally of parabolics, but later the
'breadbox" model was introduced and enthusiastically endorsed. The report called on
governments, non-governmental organizations, and businesses to attempt to establish a
strong national program, urging that international research and development be done
cooperatively and shared widely with smaller nations.

One program operating in Madagascar is run by the medical arm (SALFA) of the Malagasy Lutheran Church. SALFA runs 25 hospitals throughout the country. Dr. Stanley Quanback and his wife, medical missionaries in the country, initiated the project and helped to develop collaboration with another medical organization, Pathologists Overseas. Teaching materials and consultation were provided to the volunteers by California volunteer, Alice Hoenecke, sociologist Agnes Rasamimampianina , and nutritionist Sosanna Suzanne, the latter two employees of SALFAand
citizens of the country.

The group began by training women in one village in a semiarid region of the
country. The trainees were hospital staff members and members of a churchwomen's
organization. As stated above, fuelwood was become very scarce and expensive. Miss
Sosanna directs the project, supervising 15 trainers who are working now in 11 villages.
Primary health centers are usually the site for training in the use of solar cookers. They
estimated, as of 2003, that there were 1,000 users and others begging to have solar
cookers made available to them.[1]

Another project currently active in Madagascar is l'Association pour le Développement de l'Energie Solaire (ADES) is an NGO and a non-profit organization that produces solar cookers in Madagascar and supports the use of renewable energy sources. It started in Tuléar in the south of Madagascar in 2001. Local production by local people with local material is part of the ADES philosophy.